Discretion
by starfleetdream
Summary: No one likes to get caught.


Title: Discretion  
>Author: Starfleetdream<p>

Series: NEW TOS  
>Codes: SaAm  
>Rating: [T]<br>Disclaimer:  
>Feedback: yes, please<br>Summary: No one likes to get caught.

**Discretion**

by

Starfleetdream

Ambassador Sarek and his wife Amanda had just arrived on Vulcan for the first time since their Terran wedding ceremony six months ago. Sarek was scheduled to brief the High Council, so he was not surprised to receive a summons from T' Pau shortly after they landed. Taking leave of his wife at the spaceport, he dutifully reported to the matriarch's offices.

"Sarek," she greeted him with the ta'al without rising from her desk. As he returned the gesture she gazed at him levelly. "Thee are in good health? And thy human bond-mate?"

"We are each in satisfactory health," Sarek replied, curious. T'Pau did not engage in the human custom of small talk, and he could not discern the reason for her line of questioning, nor why she had called him here in person for this.

"Indeed," she answered. Then suddenly, "Your Time is not yet due to come upon you for some while." Her abrupt, intensely personal statement-as-a-question would have unsettled a lesser Vulcan, but Sarek's face revealed nothing. "No," he confirmed, if a little stiffly. "I estimate I have another eighteen point four months before onset." He still did not understand where she was taking this, and his diplomatic training did not usually fail him in this way. Outwardly he remained impassive.

She arose and walked closer to him. "I have had reports." At his questioningly raised eyebrow she continued, "Reports of certain...behaviors. At the Embassy on Terra, aboard the _Surak_."

"We have private quarters in both locations," he replied evenly. T'Pau noted with satisfaction that his composure did not flicker, but she pursued her line of attack nonetheless. "In each case there was apparently considerable sound insulation whose limits were exceeded." She paused. "I have also received reports regarding an Embassy hover-car, a Terran open-air park and a turbo-lift. A _turbo_-_lift_," she repeated for emphasis.

Sarek's face was as if carved in stone. There was absolutely no point in responding. He simply stared at the wall ahead of him, bio-controls working in overdrive to prevent his ears from blushing green.

T'Pau scrutinized the son before her, proud and unbowed, tempestuous emotions churning just beneath the surface, but kept in check by his considerable control. He reminded her of his father. Volatile and powerful like so many of the S'Chn T'Gai males before him, Sarek also possessed a rebellious streak that she was privately forced to concede came from her.

She wondered anew about this human female he had taken as his mate and what it was that transpired between them to cause the reports she kept receiving. Whatever it was, it at least did not appear to be having negative physical effects on him, even as she remained concerned about his judgment regarding her. In spite of having to endure an inhospitably damp and cold alien environment, not to mention its chaotic denizens, for such an extended period of time, he looked ...good. His posture was tall and straight, his features alert, his countenance perfectly composed, and...vital. She did not recall him looking this well at any time before in his adult life. And his recent performance was beyond exemplary.

Perhaps this human wife is a positive influence on him after all, she thought. Indeed, as indicative of inappropriate behavior as these reports had been, they at least suggested that Amanda might sustain Sarek during the fires - and in doing so save his life. For that, an occasional word from those who were her eyes and ears was tolerable.

Inwardly she relented just a little. She had made her point. "It appears that the human female possesses greater stamina than I first thought. I am gratified that you and she appear to be... compatible."

Sarek was stunned. She had begun by chastising his behavior in a most humiliating way and ended by complimenting his wife, something she had never done before. He simply looked at her.

"'Discretion is an asset to logic.'"*

"Understood, Mother."

"Live long and prosper, my son."

With that, Sarek turned to depart and find his wife.

END

*Surak


End file.
